Written by Geoff Johns; Art by George Pérez and Scott Koblish; Covers by George Pérez The Legion of Super-Heroes call in the reinforcements against Superboy Prime and the Legion of Super-Villains as the Crisis of the 31st Century continues. While Superboy Prime comes face-to-face with the last of the Green Lanterns, Brainiac 5 and XS attempt to ignite an electrical storm using the lightning rod, which is destined to turn the tide of the war. And what are Polar Boy, Dawnstar and Wildfire up to in the 20th Century? DC Universe | 40pg. | Color | $3.99 US On Sale February 4, 2009

Cover A (full): L1 Cosmic Boy, with images of L2 in his right hand at top and L3 in his left hand at bottomCover B (sliver): looks like a closeup of Sodam Yat's eye, reflecting L1 Shadow Lass, L1 Mon-El, and a Green Lantern symbol

Page 1

Panels 4-8: Looks like the body of Rond Vidar is dead. Beyond that observation I can't say anything else for certain. The guy with the mohawk is Sodam Yat, a Daxamite from the 21st century who was a major player in the Sinestro Corps Wars.

Panel 6: Young Clark has Action Comics #550, Green Lantern #171, and LSH v2 #306 [Star Boy history and new costume] sticking out of his backpack. The issues don't have anything in common other than they are all from Dec. 1983; however, that Legion issue was the one with the Star Boy history and which highlighted his costume on the cover, which is shown to be important later in the first "Legion of Three Worlds" flashback.

Panel 12: Ouch.

Page 10

Panel 8: Scratch one more Karate Kid, the 4th one of that name to be killed off.

Page 11

Panel 1: If Tusker's bones are unbreakable, how did he lose half a tusk?

Panel 3: Members of the UP delegations, last seen in issue 1, including members from Braal, Taltar, Durla, Winath, Earth, Colu, Titan, Talok VIII, and Kaffar.

Page 12

Panel 1: The Legion's touchstone - the UP building?

Panel 4: Mordru's got his own Shadow Demons, like the ones the Anti-Monitor had.

Page 13

Panel 9: Each of the statues has their name in Interlac on the base. Lightning Lad's costume is miscolored - he should have a blue cape and orange legs. The statues depict the Legionnaires in their original costumes. There were many stories that depicted the statues (what was it called, the Avenue of Heroes or something?) in the Adventure days.

Panels 3-4: I need help with Karate Kids. This is L1 Ultra Boy, whose Karate Kid died, was somehow resurrected, went back to the 21st century in the Lightning Saga, and died again during Countdown, but Ultra Boy doesn't remember all of that? That's L3 KK in panel 3 and L2 KK in panel 4.

Panels 5-9: Three Tinyas and three Jo Nahs, plus a statue of Ultra Boy in his original costume, getting the best of the three "fire guys".

Panels 3-4: I love it when Brainiac 5s argue. L1 Brainy has the magic lightning rod they obtained during the Lightning Saga.

Page 19

Panel 1: L1 Wildfire, Dawnstar, and Polar Boy are back in 20th century Smallville.

Panel 6: In this version of Superman's past, the Luthors came from Smallville (as in the TV show).

Panel 8: They've got everything in here, including the kitchen sink.

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Panel 3: I don't recognize anything Luthor-ish in the bedroom.

Panel 7: In this re-re-re-rewritten past, I have no idea what Luthor's history is in Smallville or how he starts losing his hair, or why that's important to the story. But it's important enough to be Phase 2 of L1 Brainiac 5's plan...

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Panel 3: the L1 Trophy Room. At the far left are statues of L1 Life Lass and L1 Evolvo Lad of the Heroes of Lallor; a statue of Darkseid, apparently taken from the cover of the Great Darkness Saga trade paperback, and the heads of three of his Servants; the corpse of Proty I; the Vanguard Satellite from Adventure 247; an unknown green and yellow robot; the first Computo; and the Time Trapper's robe (hey, where has he been lately?). Jenni remarks that they fought Darkseid too, which in retrospect is interesting because (a) in neither of these stories did Darkseid travel through time, so he shouldn't have been visiting multiverses, and (b) given the events of Final Crisis, Darkseid didn't even look the same.

Panels 4-5: I guess this is one way of solving the Great Floating Pronunciation Flamewar. L1 Winath is "WINE-ath", L3 Winath is "WIN-ath", and L2 Winath is "win-ATHE". Who knew? In the background of panel 4 are two Starfinger costumes.

Panels 7-8: How would the lightning in the rod (given that we find out later what it actually is) amplify a Trommian's powers? If he could transmute himself into whatever he wished, why did he keep his robot arm? Maybe he was wishing to get back to being himself, and this is the last known condition he was in.

Panels 11-12: Geoff Johns begins to work his retcon magic, restoring XS and Impulse to continuity together. Earth-247 was last seen in Infinite Crisis, where Shikari had found the Legionnaires. It was destroyed in the Great Smushing along with other alternate Earths, but rather than think that the Legionnaires are the last surviving members of their entire universe, I'd like to think that Earth-247 is presently one of the 52 universes as the multiverse is currently known.

Pages 22-23

Panels 1-2: Them's the Tornado Twins, first seen in Adventure #373 with the L1 Legion. We also saw them with the L2 Legion after Zero Hour; this explains how. Barry and Iris came to the mid-30th century after Barry's trial (Flash #350), which is where her parents were from (long story). Iris got pregnant with Don and Dawn, after which Barry died in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. That's the Cosmic Treadmill in panel 1.

Panels 4-5: My memory of the Zoom/Thawne saga is incomplete, I don't remember the details that Brainy's telling XS. But Zoom had a mad-on for Allens through time, as did his ancestors, the Thawnes. So L1 Don & Dawn moved over to Earth-247, where the L2 Legion would eventually form.

Panels 6-9: this appears to be the flashback to the original Legion of Three Worlds. The middle tier places the L1 Legion to be somewhere between Adventure 372 (Chemical King joined) and Action #392 (Saturn Girl gets her pink bikini); and the L2 Legion sometime before LSH v4 #83 (death of Leviathan), though Brainiac 5 is incorrectly depicted as the upgraded Brainiac 5.1 which didn't come til much later.

Panel 8: This one has some odd chronology. Star Boy is depicted with his starfield suit. The first time he wore it (Superboy #199), we had already seen new costumes for Saturn Girl, Duo Damsel, Chameleon Boy, Shrinking Violet, Karate Kid, Phantom Girl, Colossal Boy, Lightning Lad, Timber Wolf, Element Lad, and Princess Projectra. Also, Koko is seen in the lower right; he shouldn't be there, as he wasn't adopted by Brainy (shown here incorrectly as 5.1) until the 20th/30th century split.

Panel 9: In the Glorithverse, the Tornado Twins were killed by Dominators. How did it go down in Post-Zero Hour Earth-247? This panel suggests that Iris went with her kids and grandkids to Earth-247.

Panel 13: How simple an explanation. "When time traveling one can shift into the multiverse." L3 Brainy is thinking of the Post-52 version of Supergirl, who was an L3 member, not the original Pre-Crisis version who was an L1 member. L3 Brainy asks which world he's from.

To little surprise, it's the return of Bart Allen, aka Impulse, aka Kid Flash, aka dead Flash. Well, there was some speculation that it might have been Barry himself, but don't forget that even as far back as last summer they spilled the beans about Bart returning.

The bit with XS made me think about something I wrote here a while back, a theory about the multiple Legions. I guess I wasn't too far off, that each of the Legion worlds is just a parallel universe. We never saw the L1 universe (which was the future of the original Earth-1) after Zero Hour, at which point we started following Earth-247. Time travel doesn't necessarily put you on the same Earth that you left.Page 22

• Page 21 - Panel 3: * that's actually a statue of L1 Life Lass (not Gas Girl) beside the one of L1 Evolvo Lad)* there are also heads of 3 of the Servants of Darkness depicted in the case with Darkseid

Star Boy doesn't make an appearance in the Legion stories between Action 392 and Superboy 199, and Dave Cockrum started to monkey around with the costumes in Superboy 193, so there's a three year publishing gap where Thom could have made the change off-panel. I've got a spot where I think it took place.

Bismol's stock exchange is DOWN 69 points. A dismal Bismal result.

And I had the exact same reaction to page 14/15 as you did when it came in the FedEx.

Anyone else get the hint that Brainiac 5 from new earth somehow remembers pre-crisis Kara. I don't think you can ignore that dialogue and how it leads to supergirl. (they could have easily used Kon-El as the example)

Scott - Star Boy's last regular appearance in his original costume was in Action #385. Saturn Girl's new costume was in Action #392, so that should narrow it down even further.

From the post on your site, I found the Interlac "Hamilton" on pages 4-5 though part of it was covered up. I already found "Moldoff" and "Al Plastino" but I can't find "Curt Swan". Probably covered up by lightning in the lower right. What else did I miss?

Also added some more links to issues, plus a link to Iris West Allen's story (way too complicated to go into here).

Added a comment about Darkseid on page 21 panel 3, and I found the kitchen sink that George and Scott put in (page 19 panel 8).

Some "Legion Science" in the issue. Jenni's not going anywhere, so she isn't susceptible to relativistic mass increase (i.e. her "I felt so heavy" comment was out of place, scientifically speaking, although one could argue that her feet would get more massive...Ramos drawing her again? ;) ). The treadmill is what's spinning at high speeds, which would make it harder for her to move it. But this was never a problem for Barry, suggesting it's made of Special Material or something. In any case, Light Lass affects gravity, not mass. :)

1) Kon-El will be back and probably the new leader of the future LSH (probably why he was featured in Origins & Omens). This sucks, to me. He is just an uninteresting character, much like Superboy-Prime.2) Each Legion has a different Earth. So it would make a lot of sense to have TMK's Legion in the fold. If Johns wants to make me happy, this will be one of Brainy's ideas - bring the 4th one to the table. Otherwise, Johns can live with his obcession with destroying all things Giffen.3) One more dead Karate Kid - a nod or competition to Giffen? :)

"Otherwise, Johns can live with his obsession with destroying all things Giffen."

Apropos of the Legion (as to continuity, not "Great Darkness" and a few other stories), that's fine with me. {g}

Gorgeous art, yet again, from Pérez. Reproducing Giffen's "5YL" face-scratches wouldn't fit. I doubt that George could degrade his standards that much.

I'm still mystified, beyond that whole "hair" thing as such (they're going to bring back Kon-El? memories, skills, and all? cloning doesn't do that), as to what the two "paths" were that Dawnstar was talking about.

the corpse of Proty I; More likely another statue crafted by Garth after Mekt destroyed the original in Adventure #331.

an unknown green and yellow robot; Actually, the suit worn by S'Den a wizard who tried to trick the Legion in Superboy #230.

the first Computo; An image of Computo the Conqueror, which is in fact the second form adopted by the crazed computer.

Jenni remarks that they fought Darkseid too, which in retrospect is interesting because (a) in neither of these stories did Darkseid travel through time, so he shouldn't have been visiting multiverses, and (b) given the events of Final Crisis, Darkseid didn't even look the same. Reboot Legion #25-#30 "Foundations", this version of the Legion did battle Darkseid.

Also, over Lex's bed is a picture of someone wearing an s-shaped emblem across the chest. Hinting that a secret friendship may already exist...

Greybird said "I'm still mystified, beyond that whole "hair" thing as such (they're going to bring back Kon-El? memories, skills, and all? cloning doesn't do that)...."

Yeah, I'm hoping they don't go with a replacement for Kon-El and expect us to pretend he's the same. Here's the thing: Conner Kent and Nightwing had some odd mind-meld thing happen in Infinite Crisis when they held the magic crystal Luthor gave them. It seemed to show them their memories or something. If Brainy and crew get ahold of the crystal, they may be able to use it to put Kon-El's memories (up to that point) into a newly cloned body. That still shouldn't quite get the real guy back from the dead, but it might give them another tool to use against Prime.